_10 January 2011 I finally finished building my “Dog House” (above picture). IF I’m not out there, you can come and visit and have your own string bed to sleep in… I must say, I’m really enjoying it !!! As I quietly lay out there yesterday, and Louise sat looking out to the sea and sand, I noticed two of our neighbors getting excited at the tree across from us. At first I thought it was a dark brown growth about 8’ up, but then I saw the triangular pattern covering a beautiful skin. It turned out to be a medium sized 7 to 8 foot Boa.

_Apparently it had climbed up to this position to sleep off the evening meal. It wasn’t long and we had a dozen campers gathering around to take a picture so I brought out my 8 foot ladder for a better advantage point. Sitting right under this tree is a 5th wheel trailer and those that occupy it wanted “THAT DAMN SNAKE OUT OF HERE…”, so a call went out for Walt.

_Walt had been called out for the same type of rescue last year so all went well for the Boa (a new tree on the other side of the park) and the couple in the 5th wheel. Well OK, first mesquites, a couple of roaches, a large tortoise, and now a Boa…what next? Louise was walking into La Penita the other morning and came upon a man dressed in his poncho, wearing a larger sombrero, riding his donkey, and delivering either milk or cream to his customer (a lady holding a pitcher and standing in front of her little adobe). Now this was a “Kodak Moment” for Louise but here she was without her “Brownie”. On another trip, we happened onto a lady making fishing baskets/light fixtures out of vines. Louise has wanted one of these to hang off of our awning so that we can have light directly over our outside dinner/game table. So for $100 pesos ($8.00 US) we have our light. We’ve been hearing rumors about a rodeo coming to La Penita and found out that it was “not quite” a full blown rodeo but a contest between 3 local “Ranchero’s”.

_Sol, Carol, Louise and I found ourselves sitting on cold concrete steps with no more than 30 other curious observers watching some talented horsemanship with amazing steeds. One of the challenges was for the horseman to drive at full gallop to the base of the stands. With a slight touch to the girth the horse comes to a full stop with it nose just about to run deep into a concrete wall. Another challenge was to ride up beside a running steer, reach down from the saddle, grab the tail of the steer and immediately swing the hind legs out from under.

_Now I understand, it’s a little bit “cruel” to animals in the states, but it’s another country and not one of the animals was hurt during this contest... Speaking of animals… Dog For Sale Free to good home. Excellent guard dog. Owner cannot afford to feed him anymore, as there are no more drug pushers, thieves, murderers or molesters left in the neighborhood for him to eat. Most of them knew Jethro only by his Oriental street name, Ho Lee Schitt.